Passage Three
In the case of mobile phones, change is everything. [32]Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well.
First, let's talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and its parent, the fixed-line phone is, you get whoever answers it. This has several implications. The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the "meeting" influence. [33]People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. [33]Now, however, a night out can be arranged on the run. Texting changes people as well. In their paper "Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging", two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the "talkers" and the "texters"-those who prefer voice to text message and those who prefer text to voice. [34]They found that the mobile phone's individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts.
Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the "speakeasy": the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. [35]And there is the "spacemaker": these people focus on themselves and keep out other people.
Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
32. What does recent research indicate about the mobile phone?
正確答案:C
解析:細節題。短文開頭提到,移動電話不僅改變了我們的文化,而且也改變了我們的身體。由此可知,C為正確答案。
33. What may people do when they plan to meet nowadays?
正確答案:B
解析:推斷題。文章提到,人們現在不再需要事先定好會面的時間和地點……晚上的活動臨時安排也行。聽到其中的任何一個句子都不難得出,B為正確答案。C是強干擾項,文中說的“人們不再需要事先定好會面的確切時間和地點”并非表示“他們不需要決定會面的時間和地點”,而只是強調可以臨時決定,故C不正確。過于絕對化的選項一般不會是答案。A與D意義相近,可同時排除。
34. What do we learn from the passage about the texts sent by texters?
正確答案:A
解析:推斷題。文中提到,移動電話的個體性與隱私性使得發手機短信的人可以表達一種全新的外在個性,這樣的短信內容如果讓發短信者的家人得知可能會令他們很震驚。A中的revealing對應文中的express,而characters則對應文中的personality,符合“同義替換”的解題原則。故A為正確答案。
35. According to the passage, who is afraid of being heard while talking on the mobile?
正確答案:C
解析:推斷題。文中提到兩類人:speakeasy與spacemaker,并說后者在講電話時需要有自己的空間,不讓別人聽到的那一類人,故C正確。